You did me great honour, both of you, in asking me to be the wife of such worthy knights, with whom I have been brought up and have loved since childhood as a sister loves her brothers.
I will be brief as I may.

Alas! I can give to neither of you the answer which you wish." "Coup de grace indeed," muttered Wulf, "through hauberk, gambeson, and shirt, right home to the heart." But Godwin only turned a trifle paler and said nothing.
Now there was silence for a little space, while from beneath his bushy eyebrows the old knight watched their faces, on which the light of the tapers fell.
Then Godwin spoke: "We thank you, Cousin.

Come, Wulf, we have our answer; let us be going." "Not all of it," broke in Rosamund hastily, and they seemed to breathe again.
"Listen," she said; "for if it pleases you, I am willing to make a promise which my father has approved.

Come to me this time two years, and if we all three live, should both of you still wish for me to wife, that there may be no further space of pain or waiting, I will name the man whom I shall choose, and marry him at once." "And if one of us is dead ?" asked Godwin.
"Then," replied Rosamund, "if his name be untarnished, and he has done no deed that is not knightly, will forthwith wed the other." "Pardon me--" broke in Wulf.
She held up her hand and stopped him, saying: "You think this a strange saying, and so, perhaps, it is; but the matter is also strange, and for me the case is hard.

Remember, all my life is at stake, and I may desire more time wherein to make my choice, that between two such men no maiden would find easy.